We fucked up big time

I might have well titled this post “Hitting the fan part 4.”

So, as planned, me, Elie, Ren, Tyler, Jane, and Kimiko met up with Raoul at the Black Garden. He had changed his getup, now wearing dark robes and a blindfold, and his neatly combed hair was now mussed up.

“You kept me waiting,” he said.

“We were waiting for the rest of our party,” I said. “How'd your case go?”

“Perfectly,” he said. “As per usual.”

He then nodded to Elie, Jane and Tyler one after the other.

“Are these three up to the task?” He asked.

“Why wouldn't they be?” I asked, folding my arms.

“The Path of Black Leaves is a dangerous place,” he said. “We are both Demi-Gods so we should be fine, and the swordsman and swordswoman you brought seem like they can hold their own. As for the scholar, the runner, and the pipsqueak, I have my doubts.”

“Pipsqueak?” Tyler asked, annoyed.

“Elie and Jane are smart enough to stay safe,” I said. “And Tyler is way stronger than you think he is. He's made a lot of progress in his training, and-”

I was cut off by the sight of Raoul suddenly teleporting directly in from of Tyler, staring him down. Even though he's a blindfolded blind man. Tyler took a startled step back. Raoul stood before him for a minute before turning to me.

“Do you insist upon his accompaniment?” he asked.

“I do,” I said. “He has a lot of potential. Let's let him live up to it.”

“Very well,” he said. “I'll allow them to come along, if they stay out of the way.”

“Whatever you say, Murdock,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow, which I could barely see through his blindfold.

“You know, 'cause your a blind lawyer, just like... you know what, never mind,” I said. “Let's go already.”

Raoul nodded, and snapped his fingers. A rift opened up, leading into a dark forest. The leaves on all the trees were either pitch black or gray, and many of the trees were seeming to wither away.

“Come on then,” Raoul said, stepping through. “I'll lead you to the nearest Tree.”

We followed him through.

“So what exactly is this place?” Tyler asked.

“The Path of Black Leaves,” Raoul explained. “The dominion of my old master. Unfortunately...”

He nodded to a particularly withered and leafless tree.

“It's been slowly declining since their death...”

“You're master was a Fear, right?” Tyler asked.

“Close enough,” Raoul said. “Even I'm not entirely sure. They were known by many names, but one you may be familiar with is the Slender Man.”

“I thought that was just a bad meme,” Tyler said.

Raoul chuckled at that.

“Not quite,” he said.

“You said they died, right?” Tyler asked. “How'd that happen?”

Raoul shrugged.

“Something involving the color blue,” he said. “I wasn't there to witness it, but rumors did get back to me after the fact.”

“Oh,” Tyler said.

We continued for a while longer before Raoul froze in place and raised an arm to halt us.

“We're not alone,” he said.

Everyone who had a sword drew it, while Elie and Jane withdrew to the center of the group.

“What is it?” I asked.

Raoul hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

“Dobroslav Abreu,” he said. “An old friend, once upon a time. I'd keep those weapons drawn if I were you.”

“Is he dangerous,” I asked.

“He's like me,” he said. “One of the master's oldest living servants. Centuries old, and wielding great power. And like me, he's developed followers of his own. Unfortunately, our path's parted with our master's death, and he has since grown.. somewhat crazed...”

Shortly after, a number of masked goons swarmed us, led by a Slavik man wearing the same dark robes as Raoul, and wielding a large knife. He charged straight at Raoul, who quickly ripped off his blindfold.

This was first time I had ever actually seen Raouls eyes. Or, rather, lack thereof. His eye sockets were completely empty. He made a Naruto-esque hand sign, and fully turned his attention to the man charging him. The man froze in place, and his colors became completely inverted.

“I'll hold Dobroslav as long as I can,” Raoul said, seemingly struggling to speak. “Deal with his minions!”

It took a while, but we managed to incapacitate Abreu's goons while taking minimal damage ourselves.

“Okay, they're down,” I said, turning back to Raoul, who was still immobilizing Abreu, but I could see that Abreu was visibly struggling against his imprisonment, and could break free any second.

“That great, now could someone knock this fool out and restrain him!?” Raoul hissed.

I struck Abreu on the back of his skull, knocking him out, and Raoul released his hold on him. I went to assist Raoul while Elie and Jane went to disarm and tie up Abreu.

“Again, why didn't you use that power against Daniel?” I asked.

“Again, downsides,” Raoul panted. “It only works on one person at a time, and I have to focus entirely on them. If my concentration wavers for even a second, I lose my hold on them. Good for restraining someone powerful, but only if I have enough backup to justify it. And Dobroslav is far weaker than the Doctor, and easier to restrain. The Doctor would have broken free far sooner.”

“I see,” I said. “So, what should we do with him?”

“Give me a minute,” he said.

After he had recovered his strength, he snapped his fingers, and Abreu shifted into negative again, and began floating.

“We're taking him with us?” I asked.

“This magic trick is a lot simpler, requires less focus, and will last as long as he remains unconscious,” Raoul said. “Speaking of...”

He drew a syringe and stabbed it into Abreu's arm.

“This should keep him down for a while,” he said. “I'd like a chance to speak to him later. Just make sure he's well restrained.”

“This could end badly,” I pointed out.

“So could bringing along the weaklings,” Raoul said.

“Enough of that,” I said. “Let's get moving.”

We kept moving, and I kept an eye on Abreu, and even tried seeing his destiny, but something was interfering.

“You'll find that some beings are harder to predict than others,” Raoul said. “If you keep growing stronger, your penchant for foresight may grow as well.”

We eventually found the Tree. It was large, and had a dark mahogany color to it. Twisted faces seemed to grow from the trunk, and drops of blood leaked from the branches.

“Here we are,” Raoul said. “Now go on. Get your sample.”

I sprouted my gauntlet, and snapped off a bloody thorn from the tree, and placed it in a small black box we had brought with us.

“So, where next?” Raoul asked.

“We should go to Dr. Ferris's base,” Tyler suggested. “We can use his Extractor.”

“Elie's Extractor could work too,” Jane said.

“Whichever is closest,” Raoul said. “Doesn't matter to me.”

After exchanging some information involving locations of the Extractors, it was revealed that Daniel base was the closest. So, that's where we went. We set Abreu down on a table that Daniel had set up, and stationed Kimiko and Ren to keep an eye on him. I brought the Tree sample over to Daniel's Extractor, with Elie and Jane on either side of me.

“You guy's know how to work this thing, right?” I asked.

“Not sure,” Elie said hesitantly. “He modified it to work with a computer hooked up to it. This could take me some time to-”

Before he could finish, both he and Jane were swept off their feet, and shadowy tendrils rose from the ground, binding them in place. Bill Dawson then rose from the ground, sneering at me.

“Long time no see,” he said, snatching the thorn away from me and melting back into the ground.

He then reemerged next to Abreu, as more Tendrils held Ren and Kimiko in place.

“What are you doing!?” I demanded, as he placed the thorn in Abreu's hand.”

“You see, Kallaway,” he said. “There's more than one way to predict the future.”

Raoul made a move to remove his blindfold, but more tendrils rose up to hold his wrists before he could.

“Not yet, my friend,” Dawson said, smirking. “Anyway, I happen to know that what I'm about to do will be...”

A syringe melted out of the palm of his hand, and he gripped it tightly.

“...Favorable to my cause,” he finished.

He then jammed the syringe into Abreu's heart, and a moment later, the maniac jolted awake.

“Have fun,” Dawson said, grinning, as he melted into the ground, and the tendril's holding everyone back receeded.

Tyler drew his sword and made a move to try and strike Abreu down, but Abreu unleashed a pulse of dark energy that threw him and almost all of us off balance. Only me and Ren were able to hold our ground, but Ren's sword was knocked from his hand.

Abreu turned his attention to the thorn in his hand, and grinned broadly. He turned to Ren, holding the thorn in a reverse grip, raising it above his head. Ren raised his right arm to try and guard against the attack. Abreu brought the thorn down in an angle that would embed it right into Ren's arm.

But that didn't happen. Tyler, who had recovered somewhat, kicked Ren's feet out from underneath him, causing him to fall to the ground, safe from the attack. He then jumped to his feet and tried to engage Abreu. He got a couple punches in, throwing Abreu off balance, and then made a move to hit him with a palm strike. But before the hit landed, Abreu raised his hand holding the thorn up, directly in the way of the blow, causing the thorn to impale Tyler's hand.

Tyler retreated, crying out in pain, and both Ren and I acted immediately. I drew my sword, while Ren recovered his. I bisected Abreu at the waste, while Red decapitated him. His lifeless chunks dropped to the ground before us.

I turned my attention back to Tyler. He ripped the thorn out of his palm, and then, in a state of panic, he pulled his belt off and tightened it around his upper arm, just below the shoulder. I used my vision eyes to examine his arm, and saw what was happening. He had gotten the thorn out, but the damage was already done. The tree's blood had infected his bloodstream,along with all the Eldritch power that was in it.

I tried using my foresight. I tried to figure out what the best possible solution could be. But I couldn't see anything. The makeshift tourniquet was working for now, but we needed to figure something out fast.

“The Enhancer!” Elie shouted. “It's like the Extractor! It can pull Eldritch power out of things!”

I wasn't sure if that suggestion would work, but it was the best I could think to do. I escorted Tyler to the Enhancer, punched a hole in it with my gauntlet, and stuck Tyler's hand through the hole.

“Try and hold still,” I told him, looking at the dials on the side of the machine. “Which of these is which?”

Raoul quickly removed his blindfold, and looked around for a minute, before focusing on a specific direction.

“Daniel!” He shouted. “Get back to your base now! Your pipsqueak is in danger!”

Raoul then fell to his knees, seeming to have pushed his powers a bit too far.

“Stop calling me that!” Tyler said through gritted teeth.

Daniel suddenly appeared there, looked around the room, noticed the chunks of Abreu on the floor, then the fact that Tyler was in a lot of pain, with one arm in his Enhancer.

“Okay, a million questions, but first, WHAT is this!?” he demanded.

“His arm is infected with the Bleeding Tree's blood,” I said. “We're trying to remove the energy using the Enhancer. Lend a hand?”

He teleported up to the Enhancer, and turned one of the dial's up gradually. Red light, shifting between the shapes of branched, vines, leaves, and thorns, began filling the empty space inside the Enhancer.

“This could end badly,” Daniel said. “The Enhancer may not be able to hold all this power in, especially with the hole you put in it.”

I raised my gauntlet up.

“I can control energy with this thing,” I said. “At least to some extent. If this goes South, I'll do my best to hold it all back.”

“Okay,” Daniel said. “But the Enhancer wasn't built to contain anything like this...”

He placed his hand on Tyler's shoulder.

“Hey, stay strong,” he said. “I'm gonna make this work. Just give me a minute.”

He then held out a hand, and the Vambrace he mentioned in his last couple posts flew into his hand from underneath a desk, and several wires and a Cell came to him as well. He ripped a panel off the Enhancer, and started using the wires to connect the Vambrace to the inner wiring of the Enhancer.

“Okay,” I asked. “What are you doing, and how are you doing it?”

“Newborn's power,” he said. “It gives me enhanced understanding of both technology and anatomy, and a certain level of control over both. The Vambrace is designed to infuse energy from a Cell into my body, but I should be able to reverse that so that the energy in the Enhancer can be channeled into a Cell plugged into the Vambrace.”

He plugged a Cell into the Vambrace and place his hand on Tyler's shoulder again.

“Don't worry,” he said. “We're gonna get this energy out of you.”

“What if he doesn't want it out?” came the voice of Bill Dawson, seeming to come at us from all angles..

“Dawson!” Daniel growled.

Tyler's eyes snapped open, and a fierce red light poured out of his irises.

“Look at all that power,” Dawson said. “Right there within your grasp.”

Tyler's glowing eyes focused on the power flowing in front of him. His expression looked hungry.

“All you have to do,” Dawson continued, “Is reach out. And grab it!”

“Don't listen to him!” I told him.

“This is dangerous power,” Daniel said. “You could die, or worse, if we don't-”

“You know how to ork this machine,” Dawson whispered. “Just a knob that needs turning...”

“Tyler!” Daniel snapped, trying to get Tyler's attention. Tyler turned his gae to lock eyes with Daniel.

“I read the post with Kallaway,” he said, almost vacantly. “How you used this machine to awaken his powers. How all it took to survive the process was to be strong enough to handle the power.”

“Tyler, this is Eldritch energy we're dealing with here,” I said. “Your body can't-”

“Can't it?” Dawson chuckled, cutting me off.. “Aren't you the one who said he had potential?”

“Yes, you did,” Tyler said. “And that I should live up to it. Were you lying the whole time!”

“No, I wasn't,” I said. “But this isn't what I was-”

I was cut off again when he swept one of my legs out from under me with his foot, and then struck me with his free hand knocking me down. Daniel made a move to try and restrain him, but Tyler simply chopped him in the throat, and then kicked him in his bad knee, bringing him down as well. It was at that point that I realized I might have trained him too well...

“That's it,” Dawson's voice whispered. “You're almost there. The power is almost yours.”

Tyler reached his free hand up to the other dial. The one that was meant to amplify energy. He cranked it up, and the power inside the machine became brighter and more chaotic.

“No!” Daniel snapped. “Don't! You can't handle this kind of power!”

“Are you going to let yourself believe that?” Dawson asked. “How little faith your boss seems to have in you...”

“Shut up!” Daniel snapped.

“Does he really even give a shit about you?” Dawson asked.

That seemed to get a reaction out of Tyler.

“After all... aren't you just...,” Dawson hissed.

Slowly, Dawson's form rose from the ground behind Tyler, placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning in to whisper in Tyler's ear.

“...His second favorite intern?” he finished.

“That's enough out of you!” Daniel growled.

Still on the ground, Daniel raised his index finger to attack Dawson, but Dawson was faster, turning quickly to grab Daniel's finger and snap it. Daniel cried out in pain and fell back down to the ground. Dawson let out another chuckle and melted back into the floor. Daniel remained down for a few seconds before pulling himself to his knees.

“Please,” he begged. “Don't do this.”

Tyler focused all of his attention on the energy before him, clenching fist and gritting his teeth.

“I can handle this!” he hissed. “I just have to be...”

His knees buckled briefly, but he caught himself, and rose back to his feet.

“...Have to be... strong... enough...” he said through his gritted teeth.

Slowly, the energy was absorbed into his right arm, as he struggled to stay standing. Daniel rose to his feet, leaning on his cane to remain upright.

“Stop this!” he said desperately. “You don't know what you're-”

What happened next happened so fast I didn't quite catch it. Daniel was suddenly pinned against the opposite wall, pinned by what had just a second ago been Tyler's arm, but was now a giant, arm-shaped tree branch, while the door of the Enhancer was completely shattered into countless shards on the floor, with the tattered belt lying among them.

Tyler remained still for a minute, just as shocked by this as everyone else. Slowly, his wooden arm shrunk, dropping Daniel to the ground as it returned to its normal size. He took a few seconds examining his new wooden arm through his glowing red eyes, before turning back to Daniel and smirking.

“Well, look at that,” he said. “The strongest man in the room. Slumped down on the floor.”

Ren made to ready his sword, but I raised a hand to stop him.

“Okay, that's enough,” I said. “You have powers now. You're stronger. Now just calm down, and let's talk.”

He glared at me through those crimson eyes of his.

“No,” he said. “I don't feel much like talking.”

As he spoke, a large thorn grew in the palm of his hand, taking the shape of a sword.

“Just relax,” I said. “This doesn't need to get any worse.”

“Worse?” he asked, chuckling. “I feel better than ever!”

It seemed like Ren wasn't going to stay still any longer. He charged at Tyler, clashing with him for a few blows. Tyler's arm seemed to move almost on its own, blocking all of Ren's attacks. As their weapons met for the 5^th time, vines suddenly sprouted from Tyler's thorn sword, entangling Ren's blade. With a swift motion, Tyler disarmed Ren and then stabbed him in the chest with his own blade.

Kimiko cried out and made a move toward Tyler, only for him to throw his thorn sword at her, hitting her in the shoulder, and causing her to fall to her knees in agony.

“ENOUGH!” I yelled, stepping in front of him. “You need to calm the fuck down.”

“Try and make me,” Tyler snarked.

I made a move to attack him, but he dodged me with a spinning motion, and after turning his head to fully target me, he expanded the size of his wooden forearm to a massive size, and backhanded me with it. At least he made sure to fully turn his head...

I now regret teaching him that...

I was knocked back against the wall. At the same time, Raoul seemed to have recovered enough of his strength to stand and face Tyler.

“I knew bringing you along was a bad idea!” Raoul snapped, catching Tyler's attention.

Tyler expanded the size of his arm, and thrust it toward Raoul, who did his negative color restraint move he's done to hold back Abreu earlier. Tyler was stopped, but he was still visibly resisting the hold for a few seconds before utterly shattering it and knocking Raoul to the floor.

I guess Raoul was right. Strong enough being's could break out of that hold easily. Especially when he's already weakened.

Tyler turned his attention to Daniel's Extractor. He expanded his hand, and grabbed the Extractor and the computer it was attached to, and crushed them in his grasp. He then threw them into the Enhancer, and expanded his arm ever further, growing numerous branches and vines that encases all of the machinery, before crushing it all into a useless metal heap. He then returned his arm to its normal size, and looked down upon the damage he had done.

Daniel finally got back to his feet, but something was seriously off about him. His eyes were closed tight, and he was standing up straight, in spite of his bad leg, and he casually reset his broken finger like it was nothing.

“Back up, I see?” Tyler said. “Finally! Someone who can actually put these new powers to the test!”

Daniel retrieved his cane and drew a long cloth from his pocket. He tied it around his eyes berfore drawing the concealed sword from his cane.

“A blindfold?” Tyler said. “Seriously? How do you expect to fight me if you can't even see?”

“I don't need to see you,” Daniel said. His voice sounded off, and I realized it wasn't really him who was talking. “That's a hell of an aura you're putting off. Makes it pretty easy to feel where you are.”

“Getting cocky, are you?” Tyler smirked. “Whatever. Let's go, Doctor!”

Daniel next words confirmed my suspicion that he was no longer the one in the driver's seat.

“The Doctor's unconscious at the moment,” the shard said. “You're up against me now.”

Tyler stretched his arm out to attack them, but they simply set their sword on fire, and slashed at the incoming hand, causing it to retreat as Tyler winced in pain. They then teleported right up to Tyler, and slashed a him. Tyler barely blocked the flaming sword with his hand, and winced again as the flames made contact.

Tyler seemed to notice his current disadvantage, and punched a hole in the ceiling and pulled himself through it with his expanding hand. He turned for a moment to glare angrily at the shard possessing Daniel's body. The shard shot a bolt of fire from the tip of the sword, which Tyler managed to evade just in time, as he made his escape.

With that, the shard sat down, and allowed the body it was inhabiting to fall unconscious again.

Jane and I were able to bandage everyone up and get them to stable condition. Daniel and Raoul are still unconscious, but alive.

As for Tyler... I don't know what to think.

I can only hope that...

He can still be saved...

Modifications

After reading Kai's last post and learning about this so called "Fear of vermin", I became curious, and sought out the scene of that incident. Had to search the banks of the Neosho river for a while before discovering a patch of bloody brown fur emitting an unfamiliar eldritch aura. Perfect.

I bottled it up and teleported to my current base, where My Extractor was waiting for me. As the title of this post may imply, I've been doing a bit of work on it. The Extraction I performed in my own mind inspired me to try implementing some actual coding into the machine. It had taken me a while, but I was finally confident enough in the modifications to test it out.

I placed the sample of Vermin-Fear into the machine. You know what? I'm just gonna call it Timothy. I put my Timothy sample into the Extractor, and opened up a laptop I had hooked up to it via a USB cable. I opened up a file on the desktop labeled Extraction, which opened up a text system that had taken me a whole week to program.

I started inputting several codes into the system, and the Extractor started up. A few more codes later, and the energy was being Extracted from the sample and amplified. For a few moments, the lights inside the Extractor flickered, which had me worried, but I managed to solve that issue without anything blowing up. Still some kinks I need to work out...

I placed a Cell into the Extractor and put some more codes in. The energy was compressed into the Cell with no problems other that a bit more flickering lights.

So what do you think you'll be able to do with this power? the Shard asked me.

"Dunno," I said. "Let's find out."

I retrieved my Vambrace and inserted the Cell, absorbing some of the power into my body. I focused on activating that power, and I felt a very strange sensation in my tailbone.

"I have a tail now, don't I?" I asked.

Yep.

"Well, that's neat, I guess?" I said. "Prehensile?"

Maybe?

I turned around to see the long rat tail that was now protruding from my backside. As an experiment, I tried wrapping the end of the tail around the door handle of my mini fridge. It actually worked perfect, and the tail had enough strength to pull the door open.

How strong do you think this thing is?

"Give me a second."

I quickly whipped the tail against a folding chair I had set up nearby. It was completely split in half upon impact.

"Damn!" I said. "That's actually pretty impressive."

Dude...

"Fuck you, I'll use whatever language I want," I said. "Now hold on. There's something I wanna try."

I used the tail to grab a 16 oz beer can from the still open fridge and bring it to my hand. I then stabbed the tip of the tail into the can, causing beer to spray out from it. I quickly shotgunned the entire can before it could make a huge mess.

Good, you have the super power to get drunk easier.

"Up yours," I said.

So, now that we know your new tech works, are you finally gonna Extract from that Brute sample?

"Are you kidding?" I said. "I just shotgunned a pint. I need to sober up before I do any more coding. Especially with something as volatile as the Brute's power.

Fair enough.

So with that, I went and took a quick power nap, in which I had another of those dreams.

I was back in that room with the little girl, and my eyes felt very uncomfortable, and my vision was kind of... how do I describe it? It's like I had no peripheral vision at all, and everything straight ahead of me was obnoxiously well focused.

"Wow!" The girl said. "That really is scary!"

"Yeah," I said. "But it's also impractical and unpleasant."

The feeling n my eyes went away, and my vision returned to normal.

"Can you change other things about yourself?" the girl asked.

"To some extent, yes," I replied. "It takes effort though, and the changes don't make much of a difference or serve any kind of practical purpose."

I then heard a woman's voice calling out the name Emily from upstairs, and the girl bolted up.

"Oh!" she said. "That's mommy! I'd better go now..."

"Whatever," I said. "Just keep quiet about me. I don't need anyone knowing I'm down here."

"Okay!" The girl said, offering me her pinky. "Pinky swear!"

"Yeah, I'm not doing that."

The girl gave me a pout, and I begrudgingly offered her my own pinky. Then her mom called out to her again. She quickly shook my pinky before scooping up her picture.

"Let me sign this before I go," she said.

She hurriedly scrawled her name in all capital letters at the bottom of the picture.

"Did your mum not teach you any lowercase?" I asked.

"She did," I girl said, handing me the picture. "I just like the big letters better."

She then left me alone. I sighed with relief, finally having some peace and quiet. I glanced down at the picture. it still looked awful, but the girl did have a point. The uppercase letters were much more noticeable and impactful than any normal signature.

Then I woke up.

"Hey shard?" I  asked.

what?

"I there anything you wanna talk about?"

The shard remained quiet for a few moments before giving me a simple no.

I shrugged, and got up to Extract the energy from the Brute's scale. I was a lot more stressful, as the flickering lights continued, and the energy was significantly more erratic and actually cracked the glass of the Cell slightly. But I managed to pull it off and gain that power as well.

"Good," I said, storing the Vambrace away. "The SMSC can have what's left. Speaking of, do you know what our next assignment is?"

No clue, the Shard said. We'll have to wait for them to contact us.

"Terrific," I said. "I guess I'll get some training done in the meantime. I've got two new powers, after all."

Raoul

We pulled up outside the Black Garden in Elie's car. I sat shotgun with Tyler and Ren in the back seat.

"This is it," Elie said. "We going in?"

"Give me a minute," I said.

I scanned the building with my magic eyes.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked.

"Checking the place out," I replied. "He's not here."

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked.

"Yep," I said, looking around the rest of the neighborhood a bit.

"So we'll wait," Ren said.

"No point," I said. "There's a court house a couple blocks from here. Let's swing by there."

Elie gave me confused look, before shrugging and putting the car into gear. We arrived at the court house shortly after and I stepped out of the car.

"You guys wait here," I said. "This shouldn't take long."

I walked into the court house. A few seconds later, Elie came in after me.

"Couldn't stay put?" I asked.

"You're hiding something," Elie said.

"Whatever," I said. "Do what you want."

I Approached one of the court rooms and entered. No one bothered to stop me. Elie and I stood in the back of the room as a case unfolded before us. A young man was bein tried for a murder that had occurred the previous Friday. I heard Elie gasp when he noticed the man's defense attorney.

"Is that-?"

"Yep," I confirmed.

The man acting as the Defendant's attorney was dressed in a fine black suit, with neatly combed black hair with red highlights. He wore a pair of solid black glasses, and tapped the ground in front of him with a cane as he paced in front of the witness stand, questioning someone who had been near the scene of the crime.

"He's a fucking defense attorney?" Elie hissed under his breathe.

"Watch the tongue," I said. "We're in a court room."

The witness was dismissed from the stand, and Raoul turned to face the judge.

"As you can see, your honor, there is plenty of evidence to suggest my client's innocence," he said.

"We haven't seen anything concrete yet," the prosecutor interjected. "Mr. Krane could still very well be guilty."

Raoul smirked and adjusted his glasses slightly.

"You're a very hard man to convince, Mr. Harrison," he said. "Your honor, if it's all right, I have one more witness to call to the stand."

"Very well," the judge said. "Call your witness forward."

"Mr. Kallaway," Raoul said. "Would you please take the stand?"

Well, shit. Not what I was expecting to happen. And I certainly wasn't a "witness". But I sucked it up and walked over to the witness stand. Raoul stood before me, and smirked yet again. He then adjusted his glasses, and things suddenly shifted.

I was now seeing the would in photo-negative. Everything except for myself and Raoul was frozen solid.

"It's been quite a while, Mr. Kallaway," Raoul said. "How have you been?"

"What did you do to them?" I asked, scanning the room.

"Don't worry, they're fine," he said. "And no, they can't hear us."

"I read about Daniel's encounter with you," I said. "If you can apparently freeze time, why didn't you then?"

"This particular magic trick suffers a few too many drawbacks," he said. "It's good for private chats like this, but impractical for battle."

He adjusted his glasses again, and suddenly the scene changed. We were outside my favorite diner in LA, late at night. Time still seemed to be frozen, and the world around us was still in negative. A couple blocks away, I could see three figures frozen solid.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The scene of the crime," Raoul said. "From a distance, of course. I'm sure you must have a few questions for me..."

"That would be an understatement," I pointed out.

"I know," he said. "But we can deal with that later. For now, I need you to observe."

With another tweak of his glasses, time started back up, and I witnessed the event take place. A brawl broke out, one of the figures was shot and killed, while the killer fled. The third figure hesitated for a while, looking in horror at the fallen figure, before fleeing as well. Some passerby witnessed him as he ran away from the scene.

Everything froze again as Raoul spoke.

"That last man was Mr. Krane," he said. "My client. Last seen running from a corpse. Naturally, some assumptions were made."

"How do I know any of what I just saw was true?" I asked. "After all, you never told me the truth about who you really are."

"I'm a good secret keeper, but also a terrible liar," Raoul said. "I may have hidden my true nature from you, but I have never directly lied to you. I assure you, everything you just witnessed was accurate."

"Yeah, sure," I said distastefully.

"Now that you've technically witnessed the murder, are you willing to testify?" Raoul asked.

"Fine," I said. "Just cut out the magic tricks, all right?"

He adjusted his glasses one more time, and everything returned to normal. We were back in the court room. Raoul questioned me on what I had seen, and I answered truthfully. OR at least, truthfully enough that I didn't look like a lunatic who had just been shown crazy negative visions from a magic attorney. Once it was over, the judge called for a recess. Raoul and I walked out into the hallway, where Elie was waiting.

"What the hell was all that?" Elie asked.

"Ah, Mr. Graves," Raoul said. "How have you been since... our last encounter?"

"Just fine," Elie replied. "Kallaway, how did you know about-"

"Long story," I said. "Let's just do what we came here for, okay?"

"Of course," Raoul said. "You lot need access to the Path of Black Leaves, correct?"

"How did you-?" Elie started to ask, before being cut off.

"Oh please, you think people like myself don't monitor the Doctor's blog?" Raoul said. "I'll assist if it means putting a dent in the machinations of that troublesome growth of foliage. But it will have to wait a bit. Meet me back at the Garden later. For now, I have a case to win."

He turned around and walked back into the court room, leaving us alone.

"So... how exactly do you know this guy?" Elie asked.

"Well, um...," I said, a little bit embarrassed. "You know how he's a defense attorney?"

"Yeah?" Elie said.

"He sort of... got me out of trouble a while back," I said.

"What'd you do?" Elie asked.

"I killed the woman running the orphanage I spent a bit of time in," I said.

"You what!?" Elie gasped.

"Look, forget it," I said. "I don't wanna talk about it. Let's just get back to the car."



We'll be meeting with Raoul tonight. Hopefully this plan of ours works out. Jane and Kimiko are on their way down to assist us. Wish us luck, Daniel.

The Grove of Fetters

My first mission took me to a forest somewhere in Europe. The moment I stepped foot into it, I felt an intense Fear presence. A presence that seemed to be pulsating with seething anger.

"The Brute," I said.

Yep, the shard said. That's our mission.

"Geez," I said. "I know they want me getting Fear samples for them, but they picked a hell of a lace for me to start."

Well, the Brute seemed easiest to encounter, the shard explained. Most Fears avoid you wherever possible, but not only is the Brute bound in one place, but why would it care about you or any other Devil Killer?

"Fair enough," I said. "But there's still the problem of it driving anything that gets to close to it into a berserk fury causing them to spiral into insanity."

Well, your Devil Killer powers should act as a buffer against that, the shard said. And I'm here, right? If I feel the anger taking over, I'll help shake you out of it.

"Yeah, sure you will," I said. "Well, we'd better get moving if we want results."

We got moving in the direction of the Brute's presence. As we got closer, I felt bitter feeling boiling up inside of me. As I limped through the woods, struggling against my bad leg, I found myself cursing Malkator for the wound he had inflicted.

Memories of my conflicts with Kraken came up. How Dawson had managed to restrict my access to the God's Way. How that Prowler had disrespected my title just to spite me. How this whole forest was their fault in the first place.

But it wasn't just them. The AMU had lost track of their bloody knife, and that person from... what was it? ARC? They had killed the Newborn with it, causing that damn forest to spawn.

I managed to hear the shard's voice through the anger building up in the back of my head.

Het man! Breath!

I did so, and was able to push some of that anger down. None of what I was thinking was fully true, nor did it matter.

"This anger is more personal than I was expecting," I said. "I thought it'd be more of a blind rage."

I know. This isn't normal. The Brute is affecting you differently somehow.

I kept moving. More angry thoughts kept popping up, but I did my best to ignore them. Thoughts of how someone had tattooed those symbols onto Rocky against his will. Thoughts of how the SMSC had threatened my interns. Thoughts of how the AMU had expelled me for awakening my powers.

I pushed each thought to the back of my mind and trudged on. As I got further into the woods, I noticed chains weaving through the trees, coiling around them.

We're getting close, the shard said. I have an idea. Try focusing on a happy memory. It may help.

I tried to think of something. Anything. My friendship with Tony came to mind. I thought back to some of the memories I shared with him. Of us just hanging out, doing stupid shit. I thought of how excited he was to start up his own detective agency. And how proud he was of me getting into the AMU.

He abandoned you in the outskirts of that city! came a voice from the back of my head. After you saved him and the others at the risk of your own life!

Daniel, that isn't true! the shard piped up. He knew Trias was on there way, and that they would help you!

Trias held you captive!

They nursed you back to health!

"Both of you shut the fuck up!" I snapped, rubbing my temples to try and calm myself down. "Okay, different memory. Different memory..."

I remembered Sera. I thought of my time with her. Some of the dates we went on. All those movie nights we'd spent together. The sound of her laugh.

She left you!

"That's not true," I thought out loud. "It was mutual."

Was it? You know she feared you. Your lust for power. Your ambition. Your recklessness. You're dangerous. And she wanted no part of that.

"Shut up!" I snapped.

And you still miss her.

I fell to my knees, trying desperately to ignore the rage welling up inside of me.

And she. doesn't. CARE!!

"SHUT UP!!!" I cried out, feeling tears beginning to form.

Come on, man, you can do this, the shard insisted.  You just need a different memory. One that really makes you happy.

I slammed a fist into the ground.

"No!" I said. "It's pretty fucking clear that happiness isn't enough! I need something different. Something happy... and sad. Something... bittersweet."

I suddenly found myself in a hospital room, standing in a corner, watching a scene unfold. My grandfather, Alexander Ferris, was lying in the hospital bed. Myself, as well as my whole family, My dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, my grandmother, and my siblings, were all gathered around him.

This is...

"The night my grandfather died," I muttered.

He left you too! The legendary Devil Killer! Taken from this world, not by the creatures he fought back against, but by-

"Pneumonia," I said, cutting the voice of my own anger off.

The anger wasn't as strong anymore. My sadness was stronger.

I looked on as my sister encouraged me to say something to him, since I might not get another chance. I've never been good with handling grief. It took me a while before I spoke my last words to him. Telling him one last time that I loved him.

He passed on not long after that.

Did he even hear you?

I ignored the thought. Even if he was unable to hear what I had said, I know he knew how I felt.

The scene skipped ahead. I was at my desk at the AMU, too absorbed in my sadness to get any work done. Tony and Sera both came to visit me. We talked for a while, exchanged barbs, and I began feeling a little bit better.

They both hurt you!

After a bit of time passed, Tony presented some files to me. I was already aware of the rumors painting my grandfather as some kind of hero who protected innocent people for eldritch beings. And Tony had gotten me proof. Without me even knowing, he had gotten interviews with a number of runners, young and old, who had had personal encounters with him. Even had some pictures.

I looked over the notes Tony had given me. The proof was there. My grandfather was the last of the Devil Killers. A power my father and I had failed to inherit. I turned my attention to the blueprints on my desk, that Elie had asked me to review for him.

His Extractor.

The gears began turning in my head. It would take some time, but it was entirely possible to build such a thing on a human sized scale. I felt a sudden purpose. As much as I missed my grandfather, he had left me with something to aim for. And if I could become half of what he was... if I could be a thorn in their side the way he was...

My mind was racing. I had a new meaning. I had something to strive for.

I got back up and continued my walk through the grove. The inner voice of anger within me kept shouting at me. Even resorting to completely irrational things to be angry about, like Paris knocking over a broom one time, or Justin being late returning some money I lent him, and even Kallaway spraying a bit of soda on me the first time we met and he used a spiked sode to throw those Timberwolves off.

I kept moving, unfazed by any of it.

I had something stronger than Anger.

Pain.

And the will to live through it.

I'm Daniel Ferris.

And I'm a stubborn fucking bastard.

I came to the Brute. A savage, bound monstrosity, writhing in a constant state of uncontrollable rage. It seemed especially mad that it couldn't make me mad. As for it's appearance, it's hard to describe. It was like a patchwork mix of different creatures, that was constantly shifting between multiple grotesque forms. But no matter what it turned into, the chains still bound it to one spot. As I stepped closer to it, it seemed to settle on something more consistent. A large, mostly dragon-like creature towered above me. While it still had patchwork elements, that continued shifting a bit, the dragon qualities remained dominant over every thing else.

It roared at me, gnashing its teeth, but the chains kept it just far enough away that it couldn't chomp down on me. It saddened me to look at such a creature. Bound not only in chains, but in its own emotions.

"You poor thing," I muttered somberly, before drawing my sword cane and slashing off one of its scales.

I caught the scale as it fluttered down, and as I did, the beast reeled back, before shooting a stream of fire and smoke out of its mouth. I teleported away just in time, but it did singe one of my sleeve and caused some second degree burns to my arm. I'm gonna give that some time to heal before I go deal with the SMSC again.

One more thing I wanna add before closing out this post. It's this dream I have. Not sure why I wanna talk about it, but when the Compulsion hits, you kinda just have to roll with it. Maybe there's something significant about this dream.

I was slumped in the corner of a dingy laundry room in an old apartment. All the machines looked out of order, but the lights were still on, so the place probably wasn't completely abandoned, just poorly maintained.

I was in a lot of pain, especially in one of my legs. Which is kind of normal for me...

A young girl was there, smiling broadly as she colored a picture.

"I mean it," I told her. "You shouldn't be here."

"I don't like being around daddy when he drinks his soda," the girl said.

"Right," I said. "You know that's not actually soda he's drinking, don't you?"

The girl shrugged.

"Whatever it is, it makes him tired," she said. "Can I just play here until he fall asleep?"

"I don't care what you do," I said.

The girl finished her drawing of what I can only assume was a dinosaur.

"I made this for you," she said.

"It looks like shit," I replied.

The girl seemed offended by this.

"Mommy says those words are bad!" she said.

"Your mum sounds like a bitch," I replied.

"That's not very nice!" the girl said, crossing her arms.

"Of course I'm not nice," I said. "Like I said; I'm a monster."

"But you don't look like a monster," the girl pointed out.

I felt like I was being challenged all of a sudden.

"Alright," I said. "So what do think a monster looks like?"

And then I woke up. I dunno. Maybe there's something to look into there... But for now, more worried about my burn wounds.